Tag #126168 - Interview #78424 (Raina Blumenfeld)

My brother Israel was born in 1923 and he is now an architect. He completed his primary education at a Jewish school. In 1946 he went to Paris as a delegate to a Jewish conference and remained there. When he was a small boy everybody addressed him with the diminutive Israeltiko. This name Tiko stuck with him and that is why we all called him by that name. The documents he was issued in France were in the name of Tiko Josiford –Yosif turned into Josiford. He has been living there for many years.

He is married and has three daughters, who are still not married even though they are of age. He has two specialties – architecture and urbanism. In order to be able to teach, he had to specialize in Algeria where he lived for ten years, and then devoted himself to his professorship. My brother managed to come to Bulgaria no sooner than 19 years after his departure, because then he was on the records as a non-returnee, who had emigrated without the authorities’ official permission. He managed to come only due to the fact that his name was now Tiko Josiford, and not Israel Yosif Israilov. This is why the Bulgarian authorities could not establish his real identity. He arrived by car via Yugoslavia, with his wife and one of his children.